9th Battalion, Madras Regiment

The 9th battalion of the Madras Regiment (Travancore) has completed 300 years in Indian service. The battalion was raised in 1704 at Padmanabhapuram in Kalkulam taluk of Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu. Padmanabhapuram was the erstwhile capital of Travancore State. Raised as personal bodyguards to the Maharaja of Travancore, the unit, though redesigned through the ages, continues to retain its individual identity with no history of disbandment or re-raising. The Travancore Army known as the Nair Brigade completely exterminated the superior and better equipped Dutch Forces which landed at Colachal in July 1741 during the reign of Anizham Thirunal Veer Bala Marthand Varma. In the battle of Colachal, Capt Eustachius De Lannoy, the Dutch Naval Forces Commander, was captured who was asked later to train the Travancore Army. From 1741 to 1758, Capt De Lannoy remained in command of the Travancore Forces and was involved in annexation of small principalities.

In 1935, the Travancore State joined the Indian State Forces Scheme and the battalion was named 1st Travancore Nair Infantry, Travancore State Forces. The unit was reorganised as an Indian State Infantry Battalion by Lieutenant Colonel H S Steward who was appointed Commandant of the Travancore State Forces. In 1940, the battalion left for Padmanabhapuram and arrived at Military Station, Cannanore. The battalion served overseas in the 1940s. In 1945, Major General Parameshwaran Pillai was appointed GOC, Travancore State Forces. In the same year, the unit was asked to move to South East Asian Command. Embarked on at Taima, the unit sailed to Hong Kong. Disembarked at Kowloon Harbour, it was placed under the command of the 150th Independent Infantry Brigade. While at Kowloon, the unit was assigned the task of guarding Japanese prisoners of war, airfields and docks. It also looked after the repatriation of POWs to Japan. The unit left Hong Kong, disembarked at Madras and arrived at Trivandrum on 31 January 1947.

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